Fresh from Iowa, Holly (Melissa Joan Hart) and Calvin (Ryan Browning) arrive in New York, there to pursue careers as actors. Alas, money is mighty tight for the new arrivals, and decent housing is well night impossible to find. Eventually,… MoreFresh from Iowa, Holly (Melissa Joan Hart) and Calvin (Ryan Browning) arrive in New York, there to pursue careers as actors. Alas, money is mighty tight for the new arrivals, and decent housing is well night impossible to find. Eventually, Holly is forced to move in with her eccentric, cat-crazy Aunt Agatha (Lynne Marie Stewart), who lives in a rent-controlled apartment in the middle of an upscale neighborhood. When Aunt Agatha dies of natural causes, a desperate Holly hits upon a brilliant idea: she and Calvin will pretend that Auntie is still alive, the better to remain in the apartment for a minimal price. The couple enlist the apartment building's feckless elevator operator Dennis (Andrew Kavovit) as their co-conspirator, then spend much of the rest of the movie trying to keep their landlord's suspicious son Vincent (Joseph D. Reitman) from stumbling upon the truth. Filmed in 2002, Rent Control did not make its ABC Family Channel debut until September 9, 2005, by which time the made-for-cable film had been extensively re-edited to accelerate its pace. The film has since been released abroad under its working title Aunt Agatha's Apartment.

It's pretty lame, in all honesty. Melissa Joan Hart is an actress I have watched since her Sabrina days, she is the only reason I bothered with this.… MoreIt's pretty lame, in all honesty. Melissa Joan Hart is an actress I have watched since her Sabrina days, she is the only reason I bothered with this.
She's not actually a very good actress, so it's her usual hammy persona, subtle as a brick and about as convincing, but I kind of like her enough to forgive it.
Story isn't really for family viewing, though it's marketed that way. Some pretty dark themes here including a woman who's into bondage and a guy who enjoys having sex with a corpse (implied rather than seen).
If you can ignore the over the top acting and cheap production, this is entertaining enough to watch on tv (minus the kids!).

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